“What’s your pleasure, ladies?We have cask ales and cider, though I wouldn’t recommend the cider.It’s made from the local apples and it’s a bit of an…acquired taste.”
“Tea,” was his new employer’s sharp reply, “preferably with a jot of brandy to steady the nerves.But I suppose I might as well ask for the moon as a bottle of good French brandy in this place.”
Hal stroked his beard thoughtfully to hide his amusement.“Reckon so,” he allowed while he smoothly pulled the bottle of fine Armagnac off the shelf and stowed it behind the bar.He’d kept that one bottle back when he’d sold off the other contents of his brother’s fine cellars, and he wasn’t about to share it with these spoiled creatures.
For a moment, a look of stark despair tightened her lovely features.“I can scarce imagine what will pass for accommodation in this godforsaken hovel.”
Her words stripped away any sympathy her misery might have garnered.Hal curled his lip.
He had no idea what had possessed these women to come here in person all these years after buying the Five Mile, but the sooner they went back to London, the better.This pub had been Hal’s refuge for years.The last thing it needed was a trio of interfering, ignorant ladies swanning about and running the place down.
And the last thingHalneeded was to spend any time in proximity to a husband-hunting debutante with dreams of landing a duke—and the most exquisite curves Hal had ever laid eyes on.
Instead of going to the kitchen to ask Bess for a pot of tea, Hal continued to lean on the bar.He liked watching Lady Gemma try to hold onto her fraying temper.“Now that you’ve seen the old place for yourselves, how long are you planning to stay?”
Leaving her mother to the care of the younger daughter, Lady Gemma approached the bar, eyes narrowed.“Pray tell me how that is any concern of yours.”
Hal crossed his arms over his chest and arched a sardonic brow.“It’s quite a heavy load of boxes and trunks you’ve brought along.If you’re going to flee back to London after you spend a single night in this ‘godforsaken hovel,’ I’d just as soon not lug that lot up the stairs and then back down again merely to please your fancy.Miss.”
The ironic tug to his forelock that accompanied his final word was meant as a thinly veiled insult.He expected her to be affronted at being questioned by a menial; in fact, he was looking forward to seeing how she looked with rage sparking blue fire from those fine eyes.
What he hadn’t expected was a laugh.A short, rueful laugh and a shake of her head, as the dudgeon visibly drained from her stiff shoulders.“Yes, I suppose it must look like rather a mountain of luggage for three ladies.But I promise you, the vast majority of the boxes contain nothing more than bonnets, so they shouldn’t be terribly heavy.I’ve little doubt you can handle them.”
Her gaze dropped to the corded muscle of Hal’s forearms, and trailed slowly, deliberately up the lines of his biceps and across the broad planes of his chest.He felt every inch of himself come to attention under the heat of her look.
Surprise at her reasonable response and her leisurely perusal held Hal tongue-tied for a moment.Just long enough for the lady’s eyes to catch his once more.Whatever she saw in the depths of his gaze caused her to draw in a quick breath, and she stepped back a pace.
“At any rate, the boxes must come inside,” she said briskly, looking away from him.“Whatever the condition of the rooms upstairs, we shall have to make do.We certainly shall not be returning to London tomorrow with the coach.I think our time here will likely be of some duration.”
Not if I have anything to say about it, Hal thought.
A sighing moan from behind her made her turn to glance at her family.Hal watched her shoulders slump, and suddenly he saw her exactly as she was: a tired young woman in mourning, at the end of a long journey, who felt the weight of caring for not only herself but her mother and sister also.
Hal would have liked to help her.In some other life, if he were another man, he would.But Hal carried a weight of responsibility, too.
Many, many people were relying on him—and they were people to whom he owed the entirety of his care and his aid.They were people who depended on him to right the wrongs done by his ancestors, a Herculean task that would require every scrap of Hal’s strength, attention, and dedication.
Oh yes, the ladies had to go, Hal mused as Gemma went to check on her mother.The indecent sway of her hips in the black dress made him ache to discover the true shape of her body beneath the frills and furbelows—a deep, visceral ache that sent a warning all through him.
This woman was not for him.And he could not be the man she was so clearly looking for.
He hardened his heart against her.It wasn’t difficult; all he had to do was recall the other ladies and gentlemen of her class who had descended on Little Kissington and the Havilocke estate like a plague and nearly destroyed it with their selfishness and arrogance.
And as John Henry Deveril Montrose, the eighth Duke of Havilocke, went outside to start carrying in the luggage, he reminded himself of the solemn vow he’d made upon inheriting his family’s crumbling estate nearly a year ago.
I will do whatever it takes to save my home and my people from ruin.
Well.Whatever it took—barring a repeat of the sins of his father and forefathers.
Frowning down at the tower of hatboxes and trunks the coachman had unloaded from the carriage, Hal reflected that he really had no room to criticize Lady Gemma for being an admitted fortune hunter, when his family, going back generations, had relied on marrying well to shore up its crumbling finances.
But not Hal.He would find another way to rebuild his estate.It would undoubtedly take hard work and a bit of luck but unlike his cruel, irresponsible forbears, Hal was not afraid of hard work.And he was determined to give no thought to his own happiness until the future of his estate and the surrounding lands was secured.
It would take everything he had to carve out a life for himself, a new way of living in this place that he loved—with people who had been through quite enough at the hands of his family.Hal was still struggling to find his place amongst them, struggling to come to terms with the unexpected change in his circumstances that had made him duke.
He could not allow himself a distraction like Lady Gemma Lively, he thought grimly as he hoisted the first of many trunks onto his shoulder.
No matter how enticing a distraction she was.
